Working Less, Living More: How Breaking the Hustle Myth Transformed My Life and Career

Imagine living your entire career under the constant threat of a pink slip, where taking a sick day feels like career suicide and asking for time off marks you as “not dedicated enough.”

Picture measuring your worth entirely by hours worked rather than value created, trapped in a system where more is always better and rest is seen as weakness.

That was my reality in construction for years.

Idiot bosses wielding pink slips like weapons, creating environments where fear drove every decision.

Pure stick, no carrots in sight.

I thought this was just “how work worked”—until a chance encounter with a different kind of leader completely shattered my understanding of success.

What I discovered changed everything: working less actually led to making more—not just more money, but more out of life itself.

Today, I can honestly say that learning to work less while creating more value has been the single most transformative principle of my career.

It saved my marriage, revolutionized my approach to business, and taught me what it actually means to live well.

More importantly, it’s a lesson available to anyone willing to challenge the toxic myth that your worth is measured by your exhaustion.

The Accidental Education

Soon after meeting Amy, my now-wife, she wanted me to be part of two major family events: first, meeting her sister and fiancé in New York City (my first time to the Big Apple), and six weeks later, an almost four-week trip to Egypt to meet her father’s family.

Up until then, the longest getaway I’d ever treated myself to was an extended weekend road trip to Mammoth Mountains for skiing.

The idea of a 10-day trip to NYC followed by an almost four-week trip to Cairo seemed impossible in my fear-based work culture.

Fortunately (though I didn’t know it at first), I had recently been transferred to a new job site with a new foreman, Mike Antoine.

When I nervously told him about the NYC trip, expecting the usual threats and guilt trips, his response took me completely off guard:

“Oh, you’re going to love it! Have fun! See you when you get back!”

I was in shock.

Here was a construction foreman—a breed known for hardass attitudes and zero flexibility—genuinely excited about my vacation.

After that trip, maybe a week into working again (to prove I was still a hard worker), I carefully broached the subject of the Egypt trip.

Again, Mike’s response floored me.

He was almost more excited than I was, asking about the pyramids, the culture, the experience I was about to have.

I was about to discover that Mike, unlike most of the guys I’d worked with, valued travel and relaxation as much as work.

Classic work hard, play hard mentality.

The Leader Who Changed Everything

Mike took annual multi-week vacations every year, but here’s what made him extraordinary: he made sure to set up his crew with more than enough work and have everything organized so his jobs would function without him.

This didn’t make him less valuable—it made him more valuable.

His bosses knew they had a foreman who could build systems, develop people, and create sustainable operations.

He wasn’t just managing day-to-day tasks; he was creating value that continued even in his absence.

Mike planted the seeds for a completely different way of thinking about work and life.

Amy and I started taking annual trips in 2011, and we’ve continued almost every year since.

But the trips themselves were just the beginning—they taught me three life-changing lessons that transformed everything.

Lesson 1: Time Away Saved My Marriage

​About 40% of construction workers are divorced, generally from working too much or earning too little.

[Check your industry here.]

The industry creates a perfect storm for relationship destruction: long hours, physical exhaustion, financial stress, and the constant pressure to prove your worth through availability.

Taking annual holidays with Amy gave us something that no amount of weekend catch-up time could provide: extended periods to relax, enjoy ourselves, and reconnect as partners rather than just co-managers of our household.

During those trips, away from the daily grind and constant interruptions, we rediscovered why we fell in love in the first place.

We had conversations that went deeper than logistics.

We laughed together.

We dreamed together.

We remembered that we were building a life, not just managing survival.

The investment in those trips paid dividends in every area of our relationship.

A strong marriage became the foundation for everything else—my confidence at work, my willingness to take risks, my ability to see beyond immediate circumstances.

Lesson 2: From Employee to Solution Provider

The most profound shift came in how I understood my relationship with work.

Taking regular time off taught me the entrepreneurial skill of providing value and being compensated for that value.

Instead of being an employee asking for a job, I became a solution to my employer’s problems.

This shift in mindset changed everything:

Before: “Please don’t fire me, I need this job.”
​After: “Here’s how I can make your projects run smoother, faster, and more profitably.”

Before: Measuring worth by hours worked.
​After: Measuring worth by problems solved and value created.

Before: Competing with other workers for limited opportunities.
​After: Creating opportunities by becoming indispensable.

Because I made my bosses’ lives easier, they wanted to make sure I was happy working there.

If keeping Chuck happy meant he didn’t work overtime and took a holiday or two each year, more power to him—they valued what I brought to the table.

This entrepreneurial mindset eventually led to starting my own businesses and helping Amy build hers.

The confidence to create value rather than just trade time for money became the foundation of our financial freedom.

Lesson 3: Life Balance Isn’t Optional

The third lesson was perhaps the most important: you can balance life and work, and if you don’t, what’s the point?

This isn’t feel-good philosophy—it’s practical reality.

We don’t know how much time we have here.

If you died tomorrow, would you be satisfied and fulfilled with how you spent the time you were given?

Or would you have done it differently?

Taking regular time away from work forced me to confront this question honestly.

It showed me what life could be like when work served life rather than consuming it.

It gave me a standard for what “enough” looked like in terms of work demands.

Most importantly, it taught me that you can’t optimize your life if you never step back far enough to see the whole picture.

The Productivity Paradox

Here’s what the hustle culture gets wrong: working more hours doesn’t necessarily create more value.

In fact, it often creates less.

When you’re constantly grinding, you:

• Lose perspective on what actually matters
• Make poor decisions due to exhaustion and stress
• Miss opportunities that require fresh thinking
• Burn out your most valuable resource—yourself
• Damage relationships that provide meaning and support

When you work intensively but take regular breaks, you:

• Return with fresh perspective and creative solutions
• Make better decisions from a place of rest and clarity
• Spot opportunities that stressed minds miss
• Maintain sustainable energy over the long term
• Strengthen relationships that fuel your success

The math is simple: rested people produce higher quality work in less time.

The Compound Benefits

The effects of working less while creating more value compound over time:

Career Advancement

Leaders notice people who get results without drama. Being the person who consistently delivers while maintaining balance makes you stand out in a culture of burnout.

Creative Problem-Solving

Time away allows your subconscious mind to work on problems. Many of my best business ideas came during vacations or downtime.

Network Building

Taking time for relationships—both personal and professional—creates opportunities that pure work focus never could.

Health Maintenance

Avoiding burnout means you can sustain high performance for decades rather than flaming out in your 40s.

Financial Growth

People who create value rather than just working hours earn more over time. They become consultants, business owners, and strategic partners rather than just employees.

The Modern Application

In today’s always-connected world, the pressure to be constantly available has only intensified.

But the principle remains the same: your worth is determined by the value you create, not the hours you log.

For remote workers: Set clear boundaries between work and personal time. Just because you can work from anywhere doesn’t mean you should work everywhere.

For entrepreneurs: Build systems that function without your constant input. If your business can’t survive a two-week vacation, you don’t have a business—you have a job you created for yourself.

For employees: Focus on becoming indispensable through results, not availability. Be the person who solves problems efficiently rather than the person who’s always in the office.

For leaders: Model the behavior you want to see. If you want a sustainable, high-performance culture, demonstrate that rest and renewal are valued, not just grinding.

The Daily Practice

Implementing the “work less, create more value” philosophy requires daily discipline:

Morning Question: “What’s the highest-value activity I can focus on today?”

Midday Check: “Am I working on what matters most, or just staying busy?”

Evening Reflection: “Did I create value today, or just fill time?”

Weekly Planning: “How can I accomplish more by focusing on fewer things?”

Monthly Review: “What would happen if I took a week off right now? What systems need improvement?”

The Freedom Formula

Here’s the formula that changed my life:

High Value Creation: Focus on activities that produce disproportionate results. Become known for solving important problems elegantly.

Systematic Efficiency: Build processes and systems that reduce the time required to maintain your current level of output.

Regular Renewal: Take time away to recharge, gain perspective, and return with fresh energy and ideas.

This formula creates a virtuous cycle where each element reinforces the others.

The Ultimate Question

Now that I'm 60, having lived through both the grind-it-out mentality and the work-smarter approach, the difference is crystal clear.

The leaders and entrepreneurs who thrive over decades aren’t those who work the most hours—they’re those who create the most value while maintaining sustainable practices.

The question isn’t whether you can afford to work less.

The question is whether you can afford not to.

Every day you spend grinding without purpose is a day you could have spent creating value and building a life worth living.

If you died tomorrow, would you be satisfied with how you invested your time?

If the answer is no, what are you waiting for?

Your Next Move

Start small: Plan one significant break in the next 90 days. It doesn’t have to be Egypt—it just has to be enough time to step back and gain perspective.

Focus on value: Identify the three activities that create the most value in your work. Spend 80% of your time on these activities.

Build systems: Create processes that allow your work to continue without your constant input. If you can’t take a week off, you’re not creating value—you’re just being busy.

Protect relationships: Invest time in the people who matter most. No career success is worth sacrificing your marriage, family, or health.

Remember Mike Antoine’s lesson: Being able to step away doesn’t make you less valuable—it makes you more valuable. Leaders who can build systems and develop people are worth their weight in gold.

The choice is yours: you can continue grinding and hoping for eventual rest, or you can start building a life where work and renewal exist in sustainable balance.

Working less while creating more value isn’t just a better way to work—it’s a better way to live.

And after four decades of construction, business building, and life experience, I can tell you it’s the only approach that leads to lasting success and genuine fulfillment.

Your life is waiting.

The only question is whether you’re ready to claim it.

P.S. Ready to transform your relationship with time and create the life you actually want?

Everything I’ve shared in this article—from Mike Antoine’s system-building approach to taking multi-week international trips while building a thriving career—comes from 40 years of hard-won lessons that I’ve distilled into my comprehensive guide: “Control Your Time, Control Your Life.”​

This isn’t theory.

This is the exact blueprint I used to:

• Take multi-week international holidays every year (while my peers were chained to their desks)
• Retire early with financial freedom
• Keep my marriage strong for decades (while ~40% of my industry got divorced)
• Earn multiple black belts in Hapkido while building businesses
• Live a life of genuine freedom instead of just talking about it

For less than the cost of a single dinner out, you get the complete 100-page system that took me four decades to develop and refine. $27 gets you immediate access to the strategies that transformed a construction worker’s mindset into an entrepreneur’s freedom.​

Warning: This isn’t for people who want to keep making excuses about why they “can’t” take time off or create value-based work.

This is for the 20% who are ready to actually implement proven systems and transform their lives.

​Get “Control Your Time, Control Your Life” for just $27 →​

Your future self will thank you. Your current stress levels will too.